Mankind has had reason to split, cleave or otherwise “break up” rock for centuries, if not millennia. For example, rock has been broken up to make way for human infrastructure (e.g., roads, canals, railways, etc.) and/or to provide materiel to build infrastructure (e.g., roadway surfaces, aqueducts, bridges, etc.).
Methods and apparatus for breaking up (e.g., splitting, cleaving, etc.) rock have progressed from simple manual processes (e.g., dropping rocks from a high place so that the rocks are broken on impact), to the use of simple tools (e.g., hammers, wedges, etc.) to split rock, to the use of sophisticated tools (e.g., explosives and/or hydraulic rock splitting devices).
Splitting or cleaving rock is necessary and/or useful in many different fields of endeavor, and is of particular importance and utility in the modern construction industry. In many geographical areas, the excavation of rock for the construction of a foundation for a building or other structure, excavation of rock for utilities, excavation of rock for roadways, etc., requires either the complete removal, or at least augmentation, of naturally-occurring rock formations (or earlier human-built foundations) in order to allow for the construction of a foundation for a building or some other structure.
In some locations, such as in or near less densely populated areas, the removal of rock may be accomplished through the use of explosives, in accordance with various methods known in the art. In more densely populated areas, however, the use of explosives may be undesirable for many reasons, including but not limited to the dangers associated with the transformation of rock fragments into projectiles by the explosive blast, the noise produced by the explosions, and the generation of surface and subsurface vibrations, shockwaves and the like by the explosives. These vibrations and shockwaves can, among other things, damage and/or weaken nearby structures. In addition, the use of explosives in geological areas where fault lines are present may present additional issues, such as enhanced transmission of shockwaves, vibrations and sound along the fault line.
In addition to the foregoing, there may also be legal prohibitions and/or significant restrictions on the use of explosives in a given area. Such restrictions and/or prohibitions can be quite common in densely or even moderately densely populated areas. In addition to the foregoing, applicable laws and regulations frequently prescribe strict requirements for the proper storage of explosives and require the use of specially trained personnel in connection with their use. Accordingly, the cost of procuring, storing and using explosives for breaking and/or removing rock can be quite high.
Perhaps in part as a result of the foregoing considerations associated with the use of explosives to remove or augment rock (particularly in and/or near populated areas), other methods and apparatus for removing rock have been developed.
Specifically, drills and hydraulic rock splitting devices have been developed for use in splitting rock. Such devices are typically hand-held, being maneuvered into place by a workman and then used in a sequential fashion to split rock.
In use, a hand-held drill is typically first used to bore a hole in a rock, and then a hand-held rock splitter apparatus (e.g., a wedge combined with a tether for receiving the wedge) is placed into the hole and used to split the rock (i.e., the wedge is driven into the tether so as to cause the tether to bear against the side walls of the hole and split the rock). Such apparatus are generally effective, however, not very efficient. Since the hand-held drill and the hand-held splitter apparatus are both typically quite heavy and cumbersome, they require personnel to position and operate them effectively. Moreover, with such a sequential rock splitting process utilizing two different hand-held tools, several discrete steps need to be carried out in order to split the rock. First, the workman needs to bring the hand-held drill to the site that the hole is to be drilled. Then the workman needs to drill the hole into the rock using the hand-held drill in order to form a drill hole in the rock for receiving the splitting apparatus. After the drill hole is formed in the rock, the workman needs to remove the drill from the drill hole and maneuver the splitting apparatus over the hole. Finally, the splitting apparatus (i.e., the tether and the wedge) is placed into the hole and used to split the rock. It will be appreciated that the foregoing procedure is significantly time consuming, requiring a larger workforce and/or additional heavy equipment (i.e., to transport the drill and/or splitting apparatus around the worksite), thereby making the rock splitting project both more time consuming and more expensive.
Thus, there is a need for a new and improved method and apparatus for splitting or cleaving rock which combines the drilling apparatus for drilling a hole in the rock in order to provide a drill hole for receiving the wedge, with the splitting apparatus (i.e., the wedge) for splitting the rock, wherein the combined apparatus can be easily maneuvered into place and used to split a rock without requiring the movement of cumbersome, heavy hand-held tools or a large workforce.